I'm continually amazed by a kind of public blindness to the obvious realities around us. I don't want to go into details, arguments, justifications etc. because they obscure the big picture. I don't want to talk about global warming, unsustainable growth, extinction of species etc. because they seem like distant theoretical stuff to us.

I'm stating a fact as bluntly as possible: our lifestyles are about to take a big hit.

The world economy -- and with it the India economy -- is coming unravelled. Please stop believing in bullish projections; the government and big businesses are just kidding themselves and kidding us that all will be well.

Our current world order, which we broadly refer to as our economy, has been built on too many untested assumptions. What we -- and our economists and governments -- firmly believe as solid bedrock is only shifting sand, and the sand is shifting uncomfortably beneath our feet. The superstructure that has been built up in the past two or three decades is far more than this sand will continue to bear.

We keep telling ourselves and each other that the shifting is only temporary, like a bit of stock market bearishness. But this shifting is not so temporary. Big adjustments are starting to happen which may take 60-70 years to completely settle down. These changes -- the collapse of an unsustainably tall tower -- will not end in our lifetime.

What does this mean? Firstly, it means that the kind of rich urban living that we take for granted is about to become impossible to continue. We cannot change our habits of living and thinking, but we are about to have them changed for us, most drastically and unpleasantly.

We can no longer live by intellectual labour alone. We are about to have a large amount of physical toil thrust upon us. Large numbers of us will die because they are unable to physically, psychologically or socially adapt.

Our children are growing up under the illusion that they shall live in a comfortable world like ours. I'm afraid that is not the case. Their lifestyle may resemble the lives of cotton farmers in Vidharba... and that is if they are fortunate.

Our living conditions will very probably resemble what is available in Afghanistan or Iraq. We shall all have to get used to living and dying with that level of daily discomfort, uncertainty and deprivation. Our cities will become largely uninhabitable due to a sudden drop in the level of infrastructure and of livelihoods. Jobs will vanish overnight, and so will power supply and water supply. Transportation will become patchy. There will be a huge drop in mobile, telephone and internet connectivity as well, and a huge rise in costs.

Savings will vanish overnight as markets and banks collapse. Galloping inflation will make currency almost worthless.

Our psychological and social skills will be the key determinant of of our continued survival. A vast majority of us, whose skills have wasted away due to easy living, will not make the cut. 

All this is set to happen within the next two or three years.

I make this deeply uncomfortable statement because I believe it is true. I hope that understanding all this will help at least a few of us orient ourselves, brace ourselves, our kids and our old folks for the hurricane of events that is about to unfold with terrifying speed and inevitability. Knowledge and forewarning is what enables us to adapt and survive.

And yes: admittedly, I am stating this because I am deeply anxious. Sharing my thoughts with friends helps me relieve my anxiety a bit.

I really want us all to come out of our comfortable mental burrows and face our future with open eyes and minds. Our response doesn't have to be catatonic; we don't have to freeze up like rabbits caught in the headlights, doing nothing but waiting for the impact. It doesn't have to be blind panic... but it doesn't have to be pure denial either!

There is a very tiny chance that we can all strategize the best way to face the impending crisis, provided we recognize it early enough to take action. It seems wildly optimistic to think that substantial numbers of citizens can get together, discuss and act intelligently, rather than getting caught up in ego-battles. It seems even more optimistic that they can convince the government at various levels to be truly proactive and do something truly different.

But I prefer to believe that such things can and will happen in the months to come.

The rationale of our Satyagraha

A road is a road, a footpath is a footpath, a shop is a shop, and a bazaar is a bazaar. Is this really so difficult to implement dedicated-use facilities for citizens?

I understand that there are exceptions to every rule. There are times when one must be flexible and adjust. There are exceptional places where one simply cannot have a separate pavement for pedestrians, and therefore, one must come down to walking on roads. Also, there are times such as rush hours when no pavement will suffice, and therefore pedestrians must spill over and walk on the roads.

But what does one say to a city that has forgotten that there are norms of any kind? What does one say when a city's municipal corporation deserts its sense of maryada, and wilfully refuses to distinguish between road, bazaar, shop, mosque, temple and footpath? What does one say when the policing system has deserted its responsibility to safeguard the boundaries between roads, footpaths and bazaars?

Maryada is a sense of limits and boundaries. It is also a sense of shame -- of feeling ashamed when wrongdoings are committed. Sad to say, our "city fathers" as they are called have lost all maryada in both senses of the word.

Our "city fathers" (O, how shall I utter these words without bitter irony?) are the fence that eat the crops. It is an open secret that each hawker pays a substantial hafta to retain his right to loot public spaces. It is an open secret that these bribes go towards maintaining a huge parallel economy that involves both municipal employees and members of the underpaid police force, is it not?

Why then do we not join the dots and just proclaim that each and every hawker that we see is a symbol of corruption, a standing testimony to the power of money to overcome maryada and bend the morals of public servants?

A number of prominent citizens keep calling for a "war against corruption"... but they turn wishy-washy when it comes to the issue of hawking. Is it so difficult to figure out that as long as hawkers are crawling all over our public spaces, our collective war against corruption is going nowhere? Is it so difficult to understand that the any campaign against corruption is a complete non-starter as long as we are tolerant of visible corruption (a.k.a. hawking) roaming free on our streets and pavements?

In these confused, directionless and amoral times, I would like to propose a guiding principle, a simple axiom for governance.

Sahasi Padyatri's Principle of Civic Management:

Let roads be roads -- not footpaths and bazaars.

Let bazaars be bazaars -- not thoroughfare for vehicles.

Let footpaths be footpaths -- not bazaars, dumping grounds or gutters.

Fellow citizens, consider adopting this principle as a simple way to draw the lines and restore maryada to our public lives and public spaces.

Methinks that if we all resolve to treat the pedestrian's walking space as sacred space -- not to be encroached upon by hawkers, vehicle parking or any other obstacle -- we would immediately begin a return to maryada and an orderly, decent civic life. Can we please resolve to do so now?

Warm Regards,

Krishnaraj Rao,

Spokesman,

Sahasi Padyatri

My fellow ilanders, fellow Indians, fellow world-citizens...

In these closing hours of 2007, I wish you a very Happy New Year. I sincerely pray that all of us find contentment and fulfilment in life… but there is a great deal of rethinking as to the nature of contentment and fulfillment.

1) Let me tell you up front that I'm actively praying, in thought and action, that all our earnings and expenditures go into decline mode... and let mine be foremost in leading this trend. I do not wish PROSPERITY on any of us. Contentment, yes, but not prosperity, not richness... because each person's richness beggars hundreds of creatures, unknown to him. 

2) I wish and pray that in the year to come, we shall learn to cease the endless quest of fulfilment through ever-higher incomes and conspicuous consumption, competition with our neighbours, colleagues etc. On a personal level and other levels -- social, professional, industry, national and global -- we shall seek NOT TO OUTDO each other, and also not to outdo our own past economic performances. Let us get off this treadmill for three reasons: (i) It is poisoning our planet to death, and causing a wave of mass extinction (ii) It is personally meaningless, unfulfilling, unrewarding and deeply immoral (iii) Another quest patiently awaits us: an infinitely more fulfilling inward-leading quest, an ancient, ageless quest of Magellanic dimensions.

3) I pray that our economic growth ceases and indeed, declines. I pray that this happens irrespective of what the citizens or governments of USA, Pakistan or other countries do or think with their economies. I hope that this happens with a minimum of suffering all around... but as suffering is an inevitable part of this scenario of necessary decline, I pray that my family and I are among the foremost and not the hindmost in swallowing this bitter pill and smiling through our tears.

4) At some level, I find myself hoping that our NEEDS, principally food and security, are met. However, there is a problem here: while need for food can be met rather cheaply, there is no end to our need for 'security'; it is a bottomless pit. My current savings, insurance, retirement annuities etc, may be sufficient to ensure that if I stop earning with immediate effect, my family has enough to get by for another decade or so until one of my two children to start earning a living to support our family. This is far more security than any animal would enjoy, more than EVEN ONE of my millions of ancestors may have ever enjoyed. So let my family, and yours, learn to be content with far lower levels of security; this I pray.

5) The nature of our economy and our civilization keeps us all on a perpetually moving treadmill. If we stop, we do so at risk of severe injury! Yet, in order to stop this infernal device that is poisonous to our planet, we must earnestly believe that there is indeed a life outside this treadmill. I pray for faith that is as monumental and more unshakeable than this infernal machine.

6) A word of caution: mere charity and altruism is not enough. Our love of the world must go beyond charity and philanthropy; it must manifest as something infinitely more meaningful than mere ‘purse seva’. Our economies EXPLOIT our altruism as another need, and this includes our concern for a world ravaged by global warming. We are often given the impression that by some acts of charity or philanthropy, we can ‘support’ the greening of our planet. We are offered the comfort of thinking that if we are prepared to ‘pay a tax for our sins’ – such as a carbon tax, buying carbon credits, or paying to plant trees to ‘offset’ our carbon footprint  -- we can continue to consume more, produce more, pursue economic growth etc. At the heart of such claims, one discerns a deep-seated cynicism and the same devices that make our economies perpetually grow. These charities and these economic devices milk us as surely as corporates manufacturing various goodies; in the end, they lull us to sleep, motivate us to grow some more, and consume the earth some more.

7) Please, I beg you, do not allow your conscience to be lulled back to sleep. Please refuse the comfort of a bed that is lined with the corpses of your fellow creatures on earth and your own descendents, both unborn and already born. Please refuse the blood-tainted pleasures of consumerism and the opium of economic-growthism.  In 2008, please awaken fully and stay alert. Please be aware, and step from awareness into action. What lies ahead in 2008 and the years afterwards is a steep, stony, mountain. It is not pleasant, it is not pretty, it is not fun by any stretch of imagination. But I beg you, my fellow Indians, my fellow citizens of this tiny planet… please accept this bitter pill with grace.

8) In 2008, please do the right thing by voluntarily accepting lower standards of living, cutting up your credit cards, paying up your consumer loans and refusing to all inducements to take loans. Please buy less, spend less, and despite all discomforts, use public transport instead of your private cars. Please be visibly more frugal, austere, simple... and inspire others to the same. Please love others enough to refuse to compete with them. The time has come to stop being career-minded, business-minded, commercial-minded, consumer-minded. It is time to give back to this world without expectations. It is time to let go of the collective stranglehold that we have on this planet.

My friends, let us spend more time rediscovering the pleasures of just being with our friends, families, acquaintances, dogs, cats, rivers, plants, trees. Hug and kiss them more, talk to them more, sit with them on the good earth, serve them with greater humility. Be more loving and caring to strangers and casual acquaintances.

And yes, let us learn to lavish on our own inner selves the love and attention that we have hitherto been giving our material possessions, our bank accounts and our portfolio of stocks. Please disinvest in the what is gross and outward, and invest in your sublime self.

Please understand the spirit in which I offer these somewhat bitter-sounding greetings, and accept them in good grace.

With all my love,
Krish

A Worst-case
Scenario
and Some Thoughts on
How to Reduce its Impact

While participating in a debate in progress on growthmadness.org -- one of many discussion strings in progress -- I was struck by the fact that many among us are actually hoping to find a way out of our current predicament WITHOUT CHAOS and major social-economic-political disruptions... or what pokerfaced economists call Discontinuities.

I think that's unlikely. We are jolly well going to have some 'discontinuities' on this planet, regardless of whether we act positively or just drift happily along seeking economic growth.

The likelihood of populations coming crashing in a series of major calamities is high and getting higher. And please note: this is irrespective of any Global Warming events like ocean levels rising, more powerful hurricanes etc. etc.

Because our economies are growing in a pretty centralized way that is POTENTIALLY UNSTABLE. The globalized economy is like a tower built by kids balancing blocks and books one on top of another; at some point, it all becomes shaky.

Our own civilization is built around central infrastructures that invisibly enable massive human populations (and their massive consumptions) to be maintained, especially in urban areas: power-supply, water-supply, residential and office buildings, highways, railways, food-supply, industries, banking system, stock markets...  The degree of reliance on these infrastructures grows exponentially year from year, especially in a place like Mumbai, India, where I live.

For instance, all around me, I see high-rise apartments built to accommodate the burgeoning consumer-class. A lot of these folks are making their money thanks to outsourcing from the US. Without lifts and piped water-supply, high-rises would become uninhabitable.

Now let me project a worst-case scenario for Indian metropolises that could very easily turn into reality.

[Responding to the early comments, let me add a caveat here: Remember, what I've projected here is a WORST-case scenario, not a BAD-case scenario. Reality, as it plays out, doesn't usually follow the worst-case scenario projections... it stops at being merely bad. Usually, NOT ALL THE DOMINOS FALL DOWN... a few remain half-fallen, preventing the rest from toppling.]

THE SCENARIO

The projected US recession in 2008 is deeper than expected. A huge ball of bad-debts concealed in the US banking system starts unravelling, causing a tightening of debts and economic slowdown. In a desperate attempt to create more jobs in the US economy, the Congress passes laws that ban outsourcing to India.

And this move is emulated by EU nations, who aren"t doing too well either.

As the outsourced work dries up, BPOs downsize their workforce and many shut down after struggling along for some months. Millions of apartment-dwellers in Mumbai are rendered jobless. These are currently big spenders running up credit-card debts and supporting the Indian economy with their extravagant purchases.

As these millions of unemployed folks struggle to subsist in the changed scenario, they set off a domino effect that plays out over a two-year period:

Domino 1: They default on credit-card repayments, car loans, housing loans and stop paying their electricity bills. The banking sector takes a hit at first as bad debts mount, and then begins a spate of repossessed houses and cars. Power supply companies, which are now in the private sector, cut off their supply, rendering their apartments unlivable.

Domino 2: As these guys flood the job market, salaries in other sectors of the economy drop precipitously, making more people unable to support their existing bank loans that were taken under the belief that the economy was rock-solid. More repossessions, real estate prices drop, consumer goods companies (durables as well as fast-moving stuff like biscuits and ketchups) start suffering losses. Sales of new automobile drop off as secondhand cars flood the market at distress prices. Mobile phone usage starts dropping off as unpaid bills mount.

Domino 3: Stock markets start tripping and falling, multi-billionaires with their fortunes riding on these high-return instruments realize that these are high-risk too. They start pulling out, close on the heels of foreign investors (including US Provident Funds), and the markets collapse in ruins on the heads of millions of middle-class investors spread all over the country -- in cities big and small.

Domino 4: A number of banks collapse due to large amounts of unrecoverable debts. Very large numbers of middleclass and poor depositors are hit, reduced to rags. The assumptions on which banking rates of returns are calculated are all up in the air. Confidence in banking vanishes. Confidence in markets turns bitter. Confidence in government and administration crumbles. The Finance Minister stops trying to reassure the public and maintains a descreet silence.

Domino 5: Hitherto rich people living and working in high-rises turn paupers, and power-supply to many buildings is cut off and electricity bills go unpaid. No lifts, no water-supply... a large part of the city of Mumbai ceases to be inhabitable. These apartments have no market value, and so they are deserted by their owners. The real estate market crumbles.

Domino 6: Law & Order problems abound -- theft, robberies, murders, suicides, forgery, defaults on debts. Movement of essential goods along road and rail corridors becomes a high-risk business. A state of emergency is declared and the world's largest democracy becomes a police-state.

Domino 7: As medical and surgical supplies drop off and health issues are aggraved by stress, water-shortages, poor hygiene etc, mortality rates surge. Air quality deteriorates as wooden doors, windows and furniture is burnt as cooking fuel. The medical infrastructure becomes overloaded and then collapses. Hospitals become places where sick people go to die rather than to recover.

Domino 8: As death rates spiral upwards, safe disposal of the dead becomes a major economic and administrative issue. Rotting bodies lie uncremated, unburied in deserted high-rise apartments. Friendly neighbourhood stray dogs respond to the abundance of sheltering darkness and human flesh by turning feral, hunting in packs. They revert to being like the wolves and wild dogs that they have descended from. Children and the infirm are now no longer safe.

Domino 9: Deprived of food supplies, city folks -- those who are fit and capable of manual work -- migrate towards rural areas and start invading rural populations. Pitched battles for territory ensue. Communal and caste feuds, never really forgotten, rear their ugly heads. Bloodbaths follow.

Domino 10: National boundaries are now difficult to defend as the overloaded administration crumbles. Many in the administration and in security forces have not received salaries for months; they have few loyalties left. State and Central government offices, municipal offices, panchayat offices, army barracks... all lie deserted. There is no government; it is every man for himself.

In December 2009, a free-for-all state of anarchy prevails over a once-proud economy that boasted of 9.5% GDP growth.

India Shining, R.I.P.

THE END

Variations of this scenario would apply to many nations in the world that are on the economic fast-track. In such instances, how long would it take for national populations to crash to, say, one-sixth of their current strengths? A decade? Or even less maybe?

Hate to say this, but I think each passing year of economic growth increases the odds of a catastrophe of such magnitude. The tower of blocks will definitely fall within the next couple of decades.

The challenge before us is really to anticipate it, awaken the administration to such risks and build safety-valves into the system while bringing down the size of this tower of insecurities.

And this, let me stress, holds true irrespective of whether climate change is happening or not. Even in a world devoid of global warming, the current paradigm of economic growth is a dead-end street.

So let us stop debating about global warming, alternative sources of energy etc. and start bearing down on the brakes of the economy, folks. Slow down economic growth, let the foam and fizz of bullish expectations settle down to a realistic level... 

And then let us, with due urgency, try to enter into a phase of consolidating the economy -- redistributing the gains of growth in more socially and ecologically equitable ways. This will help us avoid the brunt of 'discontinuities' when they occur.

A few ideas on how to
slow down
economic growth

1) Individual consumers need to consciously consume less of whatever it is that they consume. The government or NGOs should incentivate families to benchmark their current levels of consumption on various fronts, then reduce them.

2) Advertising aimed at making people buy more should be tapered off. Only adverts giving information should be allowed.

3) Roadside advertising hoardings should be reduced by 50%, and they should not be illuminated, as they use up precious energy for a relatively non-productive purpose.

Inconvenient Truths about "Economic Growthism"

The GDP (Gross Domestic Product) is such a crude measure of the health of an economy it grows even when negative things like oil spills and crime occur. The oil spill clean up and the cost of prisons make the GDP go up — not down. GDP does not measure how good we’re doing but rather how much we’re doing. And much of what we do is environmental and social “clean up.”

GPI (Genuine Progress Indicator) is different. While it uses the same personal consumption data as GDP, it makes deductions to account for income inequality and costs of crime, environmental degradation, and loss of leisure and additions to account for the services from consumer durables and public infrastructure as well as the benefits of volunteering and housework.

By differentiating between economic activity that diminishes both natural and social capital and activity that enhances such capital, the GPI and its variants are designed to measure sustainable economic welfare rather than economic activity alone.

-- Trinifar

Genuine Progress Indicator
We believe that if policymakers measure what really matters to people—health care, safety, a clean environment, and other indicators of well-being—economic policy would naturally shift towards sustainability. Redefining Progress created the Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI) in 1995 as an alternative to the gross domestic product (GDP). The GPI enables policymakers at the national, state, regional, or local level to measure how well their citizens are doing both economically and socially.
Economists, policymakers, reporters, and the public rely on the GDP as a shorthand indicator of progress; but the GDP is merely a sum of national spending with no distinctions between transactions that add to well-being and those that diminish it. The GPI is one of the first alternatives to the GDP to be vetted by the scientific community and used regularly by governmental and non-governmental organizations worldwide. Redefining Progress advocates for the adoption of the GPI as a tool for sustainable development and planning. On a yearly basis, Redefining Progress updates the U.S. Genuine Progress Indicator to document a more truthful picture of economic and social progress. Our latest update, which plots GPI accounts from 1950 to 2004, shows that economic growth has been stagnant since the 1970s. Download report: The Genuine Progress Indicator 2006
How GPI Measures Progress The GPI starts with the same personal consumption data that the GDP is based on, but then makes some crucial distinctions. It adjusts for factors such as income distribution, adds factors such as the value of household and volunteer work, and subtracts factors such as the costs of crime and pollution. Because the GDP and the GPI are both measured in monetary terms, they can be compared on the same scale. Measurements that make up the GPI include: Income Distribution Both economic theory and common sense tell us that the poor benefit more from a given increase in their income than do the rich. Accordingly, the GPI rises when the poor receive a larger percentage of national income, and falls when their share decreases. Housework, Volunteering, and Higher Education Much of the most important work in society is done in household and community settings: childcare, home repairs, volunteer work, and so on. The GDP ignores these contributions because no money changes hands. The GPI includes the value of this work figured at the approximate cost of hiring someone to do it. The GPI also takes into account the non-market benefits associated with a more educated population. Crime Crime imposes large economic costs on individuals and society in the form of legal fees, medical expenses, damage to property, and the like. The GDP treats such expenses as additions to well-being. By contrast, the GPI subtracts the costs arising from crime. Resource Depletion If today’s economic activity depletes the physical resource base available for tomorrow, then it is not creating well-being; rather, it is borrowing it from future generations. The GDP counts such borrowing as current income. The GPI, by contrast, counts the depletion or degradation of wetlands, forests, farmland, and nonrenewable minerals (including oil) as a current cost. Pollution The GDP often counts pollution as a double gain: Once when it is created, and then again when it is cleaned up. By contrast, the GPI subtracts the costs of air and water pollution as measured by actual damage to human health and the environment. Long-Term Environmental Damage Climate change, ozone depletion, and nuclear waste management are long-term costs arising from the use of fossil fuels, chlorofluorocarbons, and atomic energy, respectively. These costs are unaccounted for in ordinary economic indicators. The GPI treats as costs the consumption of certain forms of energy and of ozone-depleting chemicals. It also assigns a cost to carbon emissions to account for the catastrophic economic, environmental, and social effects of global warming. Changes in Leisure Time As a nation becomes wealthier, people should have more latitude to choose between work and free time for family or other activities. In recent years, however, the opposite has occurred. The GDP ignores this loss of free time, but the GPI treats leisure as most Americans do—as something of value. When leisure time increases, the GPI goes up; when Americans have less of it, the GPI goes down. Defensive Expenditures The GDP counts as additions to well-being the money people spend to prevent erosion in their quality of life or to compensate for misfortunes of various kinds. Examples are the medical and repair bills from automobile accidents, commuting costs, and household expenditures on pollution control devices such as water filters. The GPI counts such "defensive" expenditures as most Americans do: as costs rather than as benefits. Lifespan of Consumer Durables & Public Infrastructure The GDP confuses the value provided by major consumer purchases (e.g., home appliances) with the amount Americans spend to buy them. This hides the loss in well-being that results when products wear out quickly. The GPI treats the money spent on capital items as a cost, and the value of the service they provide year after year as a benefit. This applies both to private capital items and to public infrastructure, such as highways. Dependence on Foreign Assets If a nation allows its capital stock to decline, or if it finances consumption out of borrowed capital, it is living beyond its means. The GPI counts net additions to the capital stock as contributions to well-being, and treats money borrowed from abroad as reductions. If the borrowed money is used for investment, the negative effects are canceled out. But if the borrowed money is used to finance consumption, the GPI declines.

World 'appeasing' climate threat

By Alex Kirby, environment correspondent  BBC News Online    Looking at home - but it cannot go on like this One of the UK's best-known scientists, Professor James Lovelock, says only a catastrophe will prompt the world to tackle the threat of climate change. He says the global climate treaty, the Kyoto Protocol, is simply an attempt to appease a self-regulating Earth system. Professor Lovelock thinks the Earth's attempts to restore its equilibrium may eliminate civilisation and most humans. He wants a rapid end to the destruction of natural habitats, which he says are key to planetary climate and chemistry. We are at war with the Earth itself. We are Gaia's target now Professor James Lovelock Professor Lovelock won acclaim for developing the Gaia Hypothesis, which suggests the Earth functions as a single organism which maintains the conditions necessary for its survival. His latest comments were made at a conference at Dartington Hall in Devon. He told a collection of scientists, civil servants and others concerned about climate change of his concern at the prospect facing the Earth. Professor Lovelock said: "In the late 1930s when I was a student we knew that war was imminent, but there was no clear idea of what to do about it. Future fears "I find a marked similarity between attitudes over 60 years ago and those now towards the threat of global [climate] change. Professor James Lovelock: Gaia will seek a balance (Image: Sandy Lovelock) "Most of us think that something unpleasant may soon happen but we are as confused over what to do about it as we were in 1938. "Our response so far is just like that in 1938, an attempt to appease. The Kyoto agreement is uncannily like that of Munich, with politicians out to show that they do respond but in reality are bidding for time." Professor Lovelock said global warming was "the response of our outraged planet", and the consequences for humanity were likely to be far worse than any war. "We are at war with the Earth itself", he said. "We are Gaia's target now." Professor Lovelock added that we had still to wake up to the seriousness of our plight, with some people continuing to deny that global change even existed. Heeding them, or the deep Greens who rejected science, would allow the planet to return to its normal state of health, "but by eliminating the majority of humans and probably civilization as well". Repeating his call for humans to use the best technology, including nuclear energy, Professor Lovelock said: "There may be a way to come to terms with Gaia and survive, and it is to take the hi-tech road. "We must stop fretting over the minute statistical risks of cancer from chemicals or radiation. Scorched Earth policy "Our goal should be the cessation of fossil fuel consumption as quickly as possible, and there must be no more natural habitat destruction anywhere. Periods of very hot weather may become more frequent "To attempt to farm the whole Earth to feed people, even with organic farming, would make us like sailors who burnt the timbers and rigging of their ship to keep warm. "The natural ecosystems of the Earth are not just there for us to take as farmland; they are there to sustain the climate and the chemistry of the planet." In place of sustainable development, Professor Lovelock called for "a well-planned sustainable retreat", a programme that would dwarf the space and military programmes. He said his hope lay "in that powerful force that takes over our lives when we sense that our tribe or nation is threatened from outside". Professor Lovelock told BBC News Online: "I do think it will take a disaster to wake us up. "We had one in Europe last summer with the heatwaves which killed 20,000 people. I'm afraid it will take more of the same, or something else like that, to stir us." Tony Juniper, from Friends of the Earth, said there was much to admire in Professor Lovelock's thinking but it was crazy to consider nuclear power as a solution. "One of the advantages of nuclear power is that it produces fewer carbon dioxide emissions than fossil fuels, but weighed against this are a great many disadvantages - and top of the list is what to do with the very deadly radioactive waste," he told the BBC.

Mother...

Mother if it please you if it be your will

On this mountain of unreason this illusory hill

That I embrace and call sacred ground

Let the pebble of Truth be found.

Not knowing its shape size or colour I search

From round stone to rough rock to red thing I lurch

Scraping like a creature possessed

Grasping each new thing to my breast.

Truth is indifferent to light and to shade

By people’s opinion not unmade nor made

Neither blooms in profit nor withers in loss

Then teach me to equally love gold and dross.

Mother take my hand guide my feet be my eye.

Confused by intentions no compass have I

I do not  know how to look where to turn

Sift harsh truthfulness from deceitful concern.

Like a candle in the winds my faith flutters

Oftentimes I doubt my purpose my sanity.

Help me guard the flame Mother don’t let it die

Else what shall I live for and why?

Blog Directory

"The first commandment of economics is: Grow. Grow forever. Companies get bigger. National economies need to swell by a certain percent each year. People should want more, make more, earn more, spend more -- ever more.

The first commandment of the Earth is: Enough. Just so much and no more. Just so much soil. Just so much water. Just so much sunshine. Everything born of the Earth grows to its appropriate size and then stops."

-- Donella Meadows, co-author, 'Limits to Growth'

Consumption Growth
Human Impact = Population x Resource Intensity
If human population has indeed exceeded the carrying capacity of the Earth, then it’s imperative we work to reduce our individual impact while seeking a sustainable population.

Urban Growth

The “Grow or Die” Myth – an illusion of prosperity The vast majority of U.S. communities compete with one another for job recruitment and the in-migration which follows job growth. This is driven by belief in the “Grow or Die” myth. Growth boosters (economic development organizations, chambers of commerce, developers and homebuilders) perpetuate the myth. Evidence suggests these communities are caught in a vicious cycle. The growth they court results in numerous externalized costs. The inevitable result is tax increases, service level declines, and infrastructure backlogs. More effective, less destructive approaches to healthy local economies focus on cultivating success for local businesses, increasing efficiency and reducing waste.

www.growthbusters.com